CHRISTMAS IN ZÜRICH

4th December, 2016.

Our first Christmas Market this year! We missed the biggest Christmas Market in Germany – Christkindlesmarkt in Nürnberg last month. Today’s plan to Zürich was a spontaneous one. We planned to stay at home and play ping pong because the weather forecasted a cloudy Sunday but we woke up to a sunny one instead. Herr Hallo came to bed and suggested that we go out today. We decided on going to Zürich and visit the Christmas Markets. There are a few Christmas Markets around Zürich. Today, we visited two – one in Zürich Hauptbahnhof (Mainstation) & another one at Sechseläutenplatz in front of the Opera House.

We started our day at the Zürich Haupbahnhof where there is a huge Swarovski Crystal Tree on display every year. The crowd was a little overwhelming because 1) it’s Sunday, 2) Sunday Christmas shopping and 3) the weather was perfect.

We decided to reward ourselves with a cup a coffee first before we brave the crowd. We went to Il Baretto in the main station. I must mention the friendly barista/staff who served us!

After our coffee, we walked around the Christmas market in search of food. In the Christmas market, there are plenty of stalls selling food. Typically chocolates, Raclettes, Bratwurst, Öpfelchüechli, cheeses, Asian food specialties, sweets, Churros, drinks like coffee, beers and Glühwein. My new found favourite street food is Öpfelchüechli which are deep fried apple rings covered with Vanilla sauce, sugar and cinnamon powder.

After savouring our Opfelchuechli, we headed to another Christmas Market at Sechseläutenplatz. Oh boy, what excellent weather we had earlier. Sunny and clear blue skies! The crowd at Sechseläutenplatz is even more than the market in Zürich HB. I took below picture from a platform outside Opera House and from where I stood, I could see Zürich lake which lies about 100 meter away. I told myself, we must go there! The view was excellent. We could see the gradient from the landscape on the opposite side. It was indeed beautiful.

We then walked around the Christmas Market checking out the new stalls. We really like this year’s Christmas markets. There is so much more to see. Mainly small local Swiss businesses which sells everything from jewellery, bags, eye wear, clothes, decoration items etc. Food is aplenty as always. Hipster burgers, hotdogs are easy to find. Zürich is an international city so international food is easy to find at Christmas markets or other events in the city. There are plenty of activities going around.

We ordered a wonderful luma beef burger (CHF 15), cup of Glühwein (CHF 6.5) and headed home for dinner. Herr Hallo made Char Siu (priceless Chinese Barbcue Pork) for dinner today. That’s more important than Christmas Market! We’ll be back for another Christmas Market in another week during a weekday. Hopefully the crowd would be a lot lesser. That’s the report for today.